


Rylieen 'Riley' Grayson - Wayne

by Penmanboat



Category: Young Justice, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Genderbending, Multi, Riley Grayson, fem!Dick, fem!robin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 06:11:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1116444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penmanboat/pseuds/Penmanboat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Ms. Riley Grayson and how she became the boy wonder. fem!Robin fem!Dick</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The first time that Batman let his little bird fly was a summer night that was unbelievably hot for Gotham. That night Riley was practicing a complicated routine on the uneven bars; a straddle back followed by a handstand. She kept overpowering the handstand and falling forward She was working on the handstand, when Bruce walked in and said, " I have something for you," and continued on his way. She flipped off the bars, grabbed her jacket, and ran down the hallway towards him.

It had been about three months since she had found out about Bruce's secret identity and thus proceeded to beg him to take her crime-fighting He walked towards the secret entrance the batcave, and her hopes rose to the ceiling. Tonight's the night! She thought. She skipped down the steps behind him. She began jumping up and down as Alfred brought her a red, green, and yellow costume.

"You've been training hard for this, and tonight is the night that I think you're ready to fight crime," Bruce said to her. Alfred handed her the costume, and Bruce added, "As you requested, 'Robin' is your code-name Now go change."

She sprinted towards the bathroom to change.

1o Minutes later

Bruce, now dressed as Batman without the cowl on, sat in the chair for the Bat-computer with his head in his hand. Alfred silently stood behind him as they both waited for the young girl to come out from the bathroom.

"Is it normal to take this long? It is just a zipper, am I right?" Bruce asked.

"I'm not sure sir, I am not a girl."

They waited for a few minutes before Bruce called to his daughter, "Are you alright Riley?"

"Yep! I'm fine!" She called back just as they heard a crash come from the room. Both of the men were running towards when Riley opened the door scratching her head. She was donned in her new outfit along with the domino mask. Before either of them could ask the young girl what happened, she said, "I tried to do a back-flip off the toilet."


	2. Her First Real Injury

The first time that Riley was hurt on the job was the scariest moment in Bruce's life. The normally happy and peppy girl lying the concrete in such a way that was unnatural. They were on a normal night of patrol, when Bruce had gotten a call from Commissioner Gordon saying the Mr. Freeze had broken out prison again. They caught him inside the vault of Southern Gotham's bank. He shot a whole into the ceiling, grabbed a large sack of cash, and made his way to the rooftops of Gotham City.

The dynamic duo, as the press called them, left the goons for the police and followed Freeze. Batman had decided that the quickest way to catch him was for Batman to cut around to the front of him, while Robin tailed him from behind. Batman grappled to a taller building to their left and swung around to get in front, while Robin trailed Freeze. Freeze made to jump the building to a lower one in front of him, so Robin followed him. Her natural instinct when on rooftops was to add her acrobatic swing to the jump. She did her normal - instinctive - measure of flipping mid-air, and as her body was in a straight line, in that split second, Freeze turned around and shot her right knee with the freeze ray. The impact threw her leg back, and her body continued to fall forward into the actual flip position.

The combination was deadly. She plummeted towards the concrete, while her mind was slow to react to pull the grappling hook out of her belt. She fumbled with it as pain shot through her leg. She had dislocated something for sure. She shot the grapple towards the building that Freeze was now on, unfortunately she over aimed. Her grapple missed, and fell to the ground along with her. It did, though, catch on the staircase that went up the side of the building. The line went caught, and slowed her down, but the sudden stiffness pulled the mechanism out of her belt. She fell the rest of the way to the ground, maybe three feet by now, without any force stopping her. And to her luck, she landed first on her frozen leg. The ice cracked and she crumpled to the ground. She hit her on the downfall, and suddenly everything went dark.

Batman quickly took care of Freeze, and rushed to his ward. He knelt next to her, and went to pick her up, but his hands shook from fear. What if he wasn't supposed to move her? Like that time he watched a girl at a gymnastics meet that had fallen and cracked her spine. The doctors had to be very careful when positioning her on a stretcher. He never thought that this would happen to his daughter, let alone when not on a simple mission like this. He was contemplating on what to do, when Riley opened her eyes and moved her lips in a moan.

"Riley! Are you alright? Where does it hurt? What do I do?" Bruce spat out.

"M'fine."

"You fell twenty feet. You're not fine. Can I move you?"

"M'yeah," she moaned.

Bruce picked her up, and the eight year cuddled into his chest. He ran towards the Batcave as fast as he could.

Alfred ended splinting her leg. She would be fine, and go on to win first place at a meet in two months. Bruce never forgot that night, and he was so scared that he had lost his little bird. Riley never forgot that injury because it would lead to her potential down fall.


	3. Girl Wonder

When Riley was twelve, her Robin outfit began to grow uncomfortable around her chest. That is to say, she was hitting puberty. The press had always called Riley 'The Boy Wonder.' She hadn't really minded; it kept them further away from finding out her secret identity.

Before going on patrol one night, Bruce noticed that Riley was walking a little odd. She walked like she had trouble breathing, and she kept pulling her Robin costume away from her chest.

"Riley?" Bruce asked her, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Hmmm... Me?" she asked distracted. She let her uniform snap back to her chest. "Yeah, fine." She went back to unknowingly adjusting her uniform while reading up on a local gang that had struck up.

Alfred walked up behind Bruce and whispered in his ear. A moment later, Bruce walked up to his daughter, "Riley? I'm really not good with these things," he scratched the back of his head, "but Alfred, I mean I, believe that it" he paused to look at the ground, his face heating up, "might be time to get a more - gender appropriate - uniform for you." He dropped his hand to his side as his daughter stood dumbstruck at him.

Riley looked at her father for a moment, an awkward pause filled the air, and bluntly said, "Are you saying I have boobs now?"

At this, Bruce's face became a much deeper shade of red. He began to stutter out a yes before quickly changing it to a promise to get her a better uniform tomorrow, and telling her she didn't have to go on patrol tonight, when she spun her chair around to look at the computer once more.

"What is it? What did I say?" he asked.

"It is nothing. Thanks Bruce."

"Riley."

"Really Bruce, its nothing."

"Rylieen Grayson!"

"I like being a boy, okay!"

There was a moment of silence before Riley spoke again, "Not all the time, but I like people thinking that Robin is a boy. I mean have you seen the other female heroes? They're treated so much different than the male ones!"

Bruce stood there, dumbfounded, and said, "Rills, if you feel so strongly about this, we can keep Robin a boy. But are you sure this what you want?"

What Riley said next decided her fate, "Yes."

The next day, Bruce had a compression tank discretely ordered for his little bird. As she grew older, she began to wear two sports bras on overtop of the tank.

She kept her secret for another three years, that is until Wally West found out.


	4. A Christmas Miracle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The main song that they are singing is "When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt. And the Romanian Christmas Carol that Riley sings is "Domn, Domn, sa-naltam" or "Let's Pray the Lord." There carol in the actual song is in Hebrew, but I thought it would be cool if it was Romanian because Dick is Romanian..

The winter when Riley was fourteen was particularly rough. Because of the cold weather and the rough economic cuts, crime was thrown to an all-time high. An explosion in east Gotham had recently put a lot of working class parents in the hospital. Many more children were out on the street this holiday.

Riley had had enough. Batman and Robin there to protect the city and its people. She grabbed a jacket and her cape and made her way to the front door. She had just heard on the news that a young girl had just died on the streets of frostbite.

Blocking her path was a certain red-headed Batgirl. She knew Riley was up to something that Bruce wouldn't approve of. Normally, Barbara was always apart of Riley's schemes; however, about a month ago, Riley and Barbara had gotten caught sneaking back into the batcave after a late night of pizza, rooftops, and crime-fighting. Anyway, Bruce had found them, and he had told Barbara's father, and he had threatened to take away her computer if she didn't 'clean up her act.'

In other words, Barbara was acting like an annoying prick.

"Where are you going, Riley?

"Out. That's why I'm heading towards the front door."

" _Where_ are you going?"

"To save Gotham. Something the  _Batman_ should be doing."

Barbara stood there for a moment before moving out of the way so Riley could pass.

"You could come with me. Barbara not Batgirl, I mean," Riley motioned to her lack of costume beside her cape, which hung lifelessly around her.

"I can't Riley," Barbara mumbled.

"Isn't saving lives worth losing your computer!"

"That's not it Riley," she said quietly to her feet. "I know it's Christmas Eve and all, but even the Boy Wonder, or Riley Grayson could bring a miracle to this God-forsaken city."

Instead of correcting her friend on her last name, Riley left with door slamming behind her and simple, "Of course you can."

* * *

Riley went to the heart of the city: a square with a broken fountain in the middle. It was a common place for the homeless of Gotham to migrate to for the night.

She started doing gymnastics moves and when someone came up to her, she handed them some food. The opposite of what you would normally see. Soon a group was watching her perform.

"Many nights we've prayed with no proof anyone could hear," she began to sing as she did a double-back handspring. "In our hearts a hopeful song, we barely understood."

_A back-walkover from the fountain._

"Now we are not afraid, although we know there's much to fear."

The people around her listened and watched intently to the girl; her cape now rippling with motion.

"We were moving mountains long before we ever knew we could."

_A round-off into three front handsprings._

"There can be miracles when you believe. Though hope is frail it's hard to kill."

She walked around the circle of people who had come to watch her. "Who knows what miracles you can achieve, when you believe."

Riley knelt to a small girl. She handed her one of her old dolls out of her messenger bag, along with a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of water."

"Somehow you will you will when you believe."

Out of the darkness of one of the streets that came to the square came a lengthy red-head.

"In this time of fear, when prayer so often proved in vain. Hope seemed like the summer birds too swiftly flown away," she sang as she walked towards Riley. Her hands that were tucked into the pockets of her pea coat came out to catch Riley's. They began to spin around and sing with bright smiles across their faces.

"There can be miracles when you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve, when you believe. Somehow you will; you will when you believe..."

* * *

Riley remembered an old Christmas carol that her mother had taught her and her cousins when her extended family had invited the Flying Graysons over from Christmas dinner.

  
_Domn, domn, sa-naltam - bis_   
_Am plecat sa colindam_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Cand boierii nu-s acasa_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Cand boierii nu-s acasa_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam - bis_   


  
_C-au plecat la vanatoare_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Sa vaneze caprioare_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Sa vaneze caprioare_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam - bis_   


  
_Caprioare n-au vanat_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Si au vanat un iepuras_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Si au vanat un iepuras_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam - bis_   


  
_Sa faca din blana lui_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Vestmant frumos Domnului_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Vestmant frumos Domnului_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam,_   
_Domn, Domn, sa-naltam - bis_   


Riley gathered a group of young children around her and taught them the Romanian Christmas carol. Once they knew it, the song spread like a virus. It spread to all of those around, one after the other, until everyone was signing.

Riley grabbed Barbara's hand and started walking to the hospital that held many of these people's loved ones. The children followed the teenage girls, and soon the adults did as well. One small boy came up to Riley and tugged on her pants. He smiled at her when she turned to look at him. He pointed to her cape, and did a cart-wheel. "You want my cape?" Riley knelt down to him and asked. He nodded. She undid the latch; the boy spun around she redid around his neck. The cape reached her thighs, while on the boy it is whispering across the ground. He started running around, another boy, his brother, smiled and together they pretended acted like the dynamic duo.

"There can be miracles, when you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill."

Patients and staff alike opened windows to better listen the singers. Bruce Wayne, who was injured as Batman in the explosion, looked down at his daughter and smiled. He was proud to see that his little crime-fighting bird was brave enough to give this city hope.

"Who knows what miracles you can achieve, when you believe. Somehow you will, now you will, you will when you believe."

Riley flipped up to the second-story window where her adopted father was and sang sweetly, "You will when you believe." And the small family hugged, and it was a real miracle.


	5. Let Them Eat Cake

As Riley flipped through the air from one building to another, she got a call from Babs.

"If you called to lecture me on how late I am, you might as well hang up because I am already getting an earful from Bats," Riley said into the com.

"Well, there is only so much I can do to appease the guests before the hosts get here. They can only eat so many deviled eggs."

"We cannot move any faster, Babs."

Riley sprinted across the rooftop. She got a spring in her step because she could see the outline of Wayne Manor in the distance. The baddies had led them to the other side of Gotham City. And of course, it was hours before Bruce Wayne's party of the year. There was a chill in the air due to the oncoming winter storm. Although she preferred to reading or watching tv as opposed to one of the famous Wayne parties, she yearned for the warmth that the manor would bring. Both the warmth of heat, and the warmth of letting her worries go. She didn't have to worry about baddies at a party; she only payed attention to not stepping on boys' toes.

This happened more often than it should: the dynamic duo being "fashionably" late to a Wayne party.

"Which dress do you want to wear?" Whenever they were running late, Babs set things up at the manor in order to expedite the process.

"The uh… red one?"

"No, you wore that one to the première a week ago."

"Okay. The green strapless one. I haven't worn that in a while."

"There's a reason for that, remember? The bloodstains?"

"Oh yeah. The silver one!"

"Silver is the color of the year. Every girl here is wearing a silver dress. You want to stand out."

"Okay. Fine. Babs, which dress do I want to wear?"

"The long dark blue-green one."

"Sounds great," Riley said. Babs probably knew Riley's closet better than she knew her own. "But no heels!" Riley told Babs.

"But you have those great dark ones that match the sash!"

"No. Heels."

"Heels."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"You want to pick what you wear, you should show up on time."

"..Fine. I'll wear the heels."

"Great! Tell Bruce he's wearing the navy suit with the gold tie."

"Yo Bats! Babs says you're wearing the navy suit with the gold tie!" Riley yelled to Bruce about a rooftop away.

"Wait. Strike that. Orange plaid one," Babs told Riley.

"Never mind. You're wearing the orange plaid one!" Riley relayed to Bruce.

"He says 'okay'," Riley told Babs.

"Cool. How much corrective makeup are we going to need?"

"Not too much. A few bruises on both of us. Bruce has some bloody knuckles. I have a pretty bloody cut on my cheek though."

"Of course you do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

* * *

Bruce and Riley inconspicuously dived into the top floor window. From there, they were directed by Alfred and Babs to separate bathrooms.

Riley took off her Robin uniform, and washed the grime from herself. Meanwhile, Babs washed her face and disinfected the wound on her check. It was pretty superficial; she had seen much worse. She applied liquid bandage to the cut and thus proceeded to cover it with foundation. Riley brushed her hair and added some product to it to make it look not like a crime fighter's. Once she was happy with her hair, she spot checked herself for any noticeable bruises or cuts. She found a few bruises and covered them up. She was going to have quite the shiner on her stomach in the morning (a swift kick she had been unable to block), but seeing as her dress would cover it, she didn't worry about it.

Once Babs was finished with her face, she put her dress on, finished her hair, and applied fancy makeup as opposed to cover-up.

Babs herself was dressed in one of Riley's dresses. It was white one that she never wore, and she loaned a lot of clothes to Babs.

Riley begrudgingly put the torture heels on, and Babs smiled at her. Bruce came out his room all spiffed up. He adjusts that jacket as Alfred makes his announcement that Bruce was finally joining the party. He walks down the staircase to the party on the first floor. Riley hugs Babs before they walk down the stairs together. Riley and Bruce would be lost without her help sometimes.


	6. Damn it Riley

                “I can’t believe Bruce is making us run late night patrol the night before our big math test,” Babs said as she and Riley watched Gotham city perched on the top of a bank. There really wasn’t much to see at this time of the day, and there was no crime going on. Riley sat reading over her notes for said test. Babs came and sat next to her and pulled out a set of flashcards. Together in the silence of the night, the two girls prepared themselves for the test they had in a matter of hours.

                They were so focused on their math work that they did not realize the bank they were sitting on was being robbed until the robbers had already made their getaway. The girls jumped up, left their notes, and followed the robbers. Seeing as the robbers were currently on foot, the girls caught up with them quickly. They were about to make their presence known, when a car screeched to a halt in front of the robbers. Riley put her arm out to stop Barbara from jumping into the light. The robbers got into the van, and when the door opened, the girls recognized the man riding shotgun. Edward Thobbes, the main henchmen of Penguin.

                “Is that really him?” Riley asked. Penguin had been off the radar for almost two months now. But Batman had been tracking him and his team. Supposedly, they were planning on a robbery on a very large scale. Bats had thought the heist was going to happen in a few weeks from now, according to the data he had. But it looks like it was happening right now.

                “We have to stop him. Take out a chunk of the overall heist,” Riley said quietly.

                “Wait. Robin, we need to go and tell Batman,” Batgirl said. Riley was always too quick to jump the gun. They couldn’t do this on their own.

                “Tell him over the com. We need to stop them before they drive off.” The robbers were just about done packing the van.

                “Robin. No. We’ll tail them while we wait for Batman.”

                “If we don’t stop the van now, we will lose the upper hand. You call Bats. I’ll stop them.” And with that, Riley swung from her hiding place and took out one of the baddies like a pendulum.

                “Damn it Riley!” Babs whispered. She watched the girl fight for a moment, while she tried to reach Batman. When she saw her opening, she too swung in to save the day. She used her momentum to land on one of the robbers back, sending them to the ground. She pulled two batarangs out of her belt and sent them flying. They connected with the shoulders of a man who was now pinned to the wall behind him.

                Riley fought more like a hummingbird than a robin. She moved with precise movements and always with purpose. She bobbed and weaved between her many opponents. The two girls were outnumbered 1 to 10.

                Finally, Batman answered Babs.

                “Batgirl come in. What’s wrong?”

                She finished off the robber she was facing with a swift kick to the head.

                “You know how Penguin was lying in wait for a few weeks then he was going to come back with a huge heist. Yeah well-“ she took a second to front flip over another attacker and slam him into a wall. “It’s happening right now.”

                “Please tell me that you two _did_ not just jump into the fray.”

                “I didn’t.”

                “…Riley… I’ll be at your location in ten minutes. Hold on for that long.” And the com went silent.

                When Babs looked over at Riley, she was face first on the ground. A baddie was inches away from shooting the girl in the head. Babs swooped in and took him out. She helped Riley up, and said quietly, “Bats will be here in ten minutes. Hold out for that long.”

                They stood back to back while what was left of Penguin’s crew tried to kill them. Barbara really hated Riley sometimes.

                Things were going okay for the first five minutes. They held their own, and neither of them were severely injured. Then Riley decided to try to get the high ground.

                The place that the baddies had chosen to be picked up was a large square of flat land surrounded by abandoned buildings on every side. There was a straight line of alleyway on both the north and south sides.

                Riley shot her batrope to one of the buildings on the other side of square. It hooked to the side of the top of the building. It pulled taught, and she started to ascend. And then the unthinkable happened. Somehow, one of Penguin’s minions managed to climb a stairwell connected to the say building and cut the line. Riley should have been fine. She should have done some crazy acrobatic move in the air and taken out the baddie. She should have landed on her feet. She should _not_ have been shot.

                She fell the ground three stories down with a heavy thud. She landed parallel to the ground with her right leg taking the brunt of the damage. She didn’t move.

                Babs made her way towards her best friend. She was blind with rage and pain and terror. She kept thinking how stupid Riley was for getting herself in this kind of trouble, and how stupid _she_ was for letting Riley get into this fray. She wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings because she took a hit to her windpipe. She landed hard on her back. She couldn’t catch her breath for a moment. The world rushed around her in a blur. It felt the same when you get up too quickly after sitting for a long time. The world just blured into colors.

                She heard Thobbes say, “Take the boy! Leave the girl!”

                “But there are two girls, silly,” Babs thought with an intoxicated smile. Then she got a swift kick to the head and blacked out.               

* * *

                 Babs woke up in a bed at Wayne manor. Her head throbbed, and she moaned because of it. She closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. She heard a door creak open and soft footsteps come towards her bed.

                 “Five more minutes dad,” Babs mumbled. 

                 “Barbara.”

                 “My head hurts. I don’t wanna go to school today.”

                 “Barbara. Wake up.”

                 “I’ll see Riley later today. I don’t need to see her before school.”

                 “Barbara. You need to wake up. You’re at Wayne Manor.”

                 And like the flood gates opened up, Barbara remembered the events of last night.

                “Riley!” she screamed out. “They have Riley! We need to go and save her!” She pushed the covers, and stood up. Much too quickly, she might add, because as soon as she was on her feet, the world wobbled to the left, and she found herself in Bruce’s arms.

                “You have a concussion. You need to rest,” Bruce told her as he set her back down on the bed. She recognized this room. It was the guest room across the hall from Riley’s bedroom. She laid back into the bed. Her head really hurt.

                “Are you going to find her?”

                “Of course I am. But you need to rest. Call for Alfred if you need anything.”

                Barbara drifted back to sleep as Bruce left her room and turned the lights off.

                Neither of the girls ended up taking the math test that day.               

* * *

                Bruce walked down to the batcave with a heavy heart. For a girl with such great intelligence, his daughter was a dumbass. He was furious with her for being so reckless; she should have put more thought into her actions. He sat at the computer and tried again to locate her GPS tracker that she carried on her belt. He prayed there would be a small blip on the map, but there wasn’t.

                He knew that he would find her. He did the last two times. But a little voice in the back of his head told him to stay logical. There was always a chance that she was dead. He sat in silence in the batcave, thinking about his little bird. When he realized that he would get nothing done while moping like this, he put on his Batman uniform and decided to have a look around town.

                He had tabs on all the banks in Gotham, in case Penguin robbed another one, but they all reported normally. He checked his past hideouts for any signs on where he might be hiding now, but there were none. He checked Robin’s GPS again, but it was still offline. He looked around where he was perched, but saw nothing. No, that wasn’t quite right. He saw a man walking down one of the alleyways to his left. He followed him on the rooftops stealthily. He jumped onto a shorter building trying to get a better look at the man. He was wearing all dark clothes, and the hood on his jacket was up. Bruce saw his face though, and he recognized him. Edward Thobbes.

* * *

 

                “She’s there Alfred. She has to be,” Bruce said. “I followed him all the way there, and I know the place. It’s an abandoned factory. I perfect place for a villain’s hideout.”

                Alfred listened to him, and said, “Are you trying to convince me or yourself, sir?”

                Bruce sighed and said, “Both I guess.”

                “It sounds like she’d be there,” Babs said from the staircase. She was dressed in a pair of Riley’s pajamas with a bandage wound across her head. “You said that’s where Thobbes went, right? And that van that we saw was there too.  Not to mention all the cronies scuttling about it. It sounds like a place they’d keep her hostage.”

                “You should be in bed young lady,” Bruce said. “You need to rest.”

                “But she is right sir. Your logic is sound,” Alfred said.

                “Great! So when are you leaving?” Babs asked.

                “You’re not coming with me,” Bruce told her.

                “Party-pooper.”               

* * *

                Bruce left about 20 minutes after his conversation with Barbara. He wanted to leave as soon as he could, but he needed some sort of plan. He got the diagrams of the building including all the ventilation. He didn’t know where there were keeping Riley, so he’d have to find that out on his own. He equipped his belt with all the weapons he thought he’d need. He also packed a med kit. He didn’t know what condition his little bird was in.

                He thought about heading there on foot seeing as it was only about 15 minutes away from Wayne manor, but he decided against it. He didn’t know if Robin was in any condition to walk, let alone make a 15 minute getaway. He got into the batmobile, and went to save his daughter.

                When he got there, he parked his batmobile about two blocks away, so it wouldn’t be noticed. Then he made his way into the hideout. He had taken care to know where all the guards were posted. He sneaked into the building like any other day, but he had much more to lose with this mission. He crouched on the roof of the guard-tower and waited for the only man in the station to come out. When he did, Batman took him down from the back. This man was target because of his age. He was much too young to be caught up in any of this. Then again, his own 14 year old daughter was a crime fighter, but look where that got her. Anyway, Batman knocked out this guard because he believed the boy would spill the beans the quickest. Time was of the essence in this situation, Riley had already been gone for 24 hours.

                When the guard woke up, he looked like a frightened puppy. “Oh my God, it’s Batman! No, no, no! I’m too young to die!” Batman rolled his eyes. Apparently the boy wasn’t scared enough to be silent.

                “Where are you keeping Robin?” he asked.

                “Please! I don’t want to die!” the boy struggled with his bonds. “I haven’t accomplished anything! I haven’t left my mark on the world!”

                The boy’s pleadings were getting on Batman’s nerves. “Where is Robin?” he asked as he grabbed the boy by the collar and yelled in his face. “I don’t have time for your whining. Tell me where you’re holding the boy!”

                The boy shut up and started to shake, “The kid?”

                “Yes. The…kid.”

                “He’s on the ground floor. Room 134. It used to be one of the plastic molding rooms.”

                And like a bullet, Batman was racing downstairs.

                “Wait! Aren’t you going to untie me?” 

* * *

 

                Batman crept through the building. He didn’t want to attract any more attention than he needed; he wanted to make a quick and clean getaway. He had the nervousness of a teenage girl about to pass her crush in the hallway. He both wanted to see Riley, but didn’t want to at the same time. If she was hurt, he would never forgive himself, but if she wasn’t, then he’d never forgive _her._

He crept around the corner to find the door to room 134. He peered inside, and saw nothing. He did a quick heat check, and found only one person. Hopefully it was Riley. It picked the lock quickly before anyone saw him, he snuck inside, and shut the door.

                There, hanging from the ceiling, was his ward. He cut the rope with one of his batarangs. She fell into his arms. Her eyes fluttered open and she whispered, “Bats?”

                “Yes, Robin. I’m going to get you out of here.” She had bloody wrists from her bindings, and she was beaten all over. There weren’t many massive injuries except for her leg which was bent at painful leg.

                And he left for the door. He made it to the main hallway without being caught. He wasn’t paying high enough attention to his surroundings. A man from the floor above him spotted him from across the wide open area in the middle of the building. The man called for back-up, and seven men came at Batman from the front. He set down Robin down with her back propped against a maintenance room door. Her eyes were closed. He went to fight the seven men that had already charged him. He took them down easily, he stood there for a second to catch his breath before going and picking up Riley. Then, from behind him, her shout came.

                “Batman!” and then a thump followed. He spun around quickly, momentarily thinking the worst.

                But there was just another guard lying face first on the ground with a batarang sticking out of his back. Riley sat there, breathing heavy, with her arm still in throwing position. He went and picked her up bridal style and ran for the back exit. He heard the voices of henchman behind trying to catch up with him. Robin was one step ahead of him though. She threw a smoke grenade at them, and they were lost in the billowing cloud.

                They made it out into the night safe and sound. When they were halfway between the building and the batmobile when the police showed up and began the seizure of the building.

                “Thanks Bruce,” Riley whispered as she passed out in his arms. 

* * *

 

                Bruce took her to an ER and paid the doctors to keep this from the media. He did _not_ need another story on the prime time news. Her right leg was broken at her knee. Her right hip was fractured as well. She had severe contusions on her right leg as well as her back and abdomen. She had many cuts and small bruises. Luckily, she had no concussion or brain damage. With the proper rest and physical therapy, she should make a near to full recovery.

                Riley was upset when she first heard that she would be confined to bed rest for a matter of many weeks, but then Bruce told her to be happy that she would still be able to be Robin not to mention continue gymnastics. Then she shut up.

                Both Babs and Bruce gave her a spiel of not jumping the gun on attacking people. Also, she should listen to Barbara more. But that was more of an argument from Babs than Bruce.

                Bruce liked to think of himself as an almost average parent. Making sure that his daughter went to bed at a reasonable hour, listening to her problems and offering advice when needed. He worried about her too. The normal things of course, who she was seeing, how her grades were, what she was eating. But he also had to worry about keeping her uninjured and _alive._ And that is what sets him apart from the average parent.

                The school would be told that she had a terrible accident while practice a gymnastics routine. That was usual cover story for these kinds of things.

                She would be given an in-home tutor to keep up with her school work, but she never would take that math test. 


End file.
